Decayed
by DoomedToBeACrazyFanGirlForever
Summary: Zombies may seem cliche, but they're still a threat. When Gotham gets plunged into a zombie outbreak, it's up to the resident young heroes to clean up the mess. They've handled things like this before, but their optimism is soon put to the test when they realize just how grisly a real life apocalypse is. Zombie Apocalypse AU. Minor Birdflash. Rated T for gore and swearing.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Well, this is my first chartered fic in a while. I should be posting about once a week, but school is hell and I don't really have a summer break yet. Stay tuned!**

Set before February 2015 in the YJ universe, meaning that Wally and Artemis are still on the team.

 **Decayed**

* * *

Nightwing had seen a lot of clichéd villain shticks in his career as a vigilante, but this was just flat out unoriginal.

"Really? Zombies?" His tone was incredulous as he responded to Batman's call.

"Yes, that's what they look like. From what I can tell, this isn't a form of Joker Venom, nor is it the Hatter's mind control devices." Batman's gruff voice drifted through Nightwing's . "I've got them blocked off at the docks, but Robin's at the Batcave with a sprained ankle, so I need you to head up here and help me subdue them."

Nightwing nodded, even though there was no one to observe him. "On my way." With a running start, he leapt off of the building he had been keeping vigil on, swinging down to the streets below with his grapple. Sure, there had been flight of stairs behind him on the roof, but what was Nightwing if not a bit dramatic? Hopping onto his motorcycle, he revved the engine, speeding off towards Gotham. "Any more details for me? Why'd you call these things zombies? I mean, you could have chosen any other word."

"Well… it's a group of twelve, and they look very zombie like, shambling around with un-bleeding wounds. I've scanned for Hatter tech, but there is none, and they display none of the Joker Venom side effects. They seem to be attracted to heat. In case this is mind control, we need to take these people back to the cave unharmed. We'll study them there." There was a scuffling sound and a grunt, causing Nightwing to furrow his brow in concern.

"Batman?"

"One of them attacked." Batman's voice came through the , followed by obvious sounds of combat. "The rest are starting to notice. Full on conflict is inevitable. What's your ETA? I need backup, these things aren't going down easy."

"Less than five minutes, hold tight." Swerving around a corner, Nightwing sped up, readying his non-lethal weapons as the docks came into view.

When he reached his destination, Dick skidded to a stop, leaping of his cycle in one smooth motion.

"Where at the docks are you? I'm here." He spoke into his , but all he got back was static. He waited a second before trying again. "Batman?" Just more static.

Giving up on the , Nightwing decided to scope out the docks in hopes of finding his mentor. It didn't take him long, considering the docks weren't a very large area.

He spotted Batman hunched over what looked like a pile of bodies, and to be honest, it looked pretty ominous. Nightwing noticed a crushed on the wooden docks, explaining Batman's radio silence.

"Hey, Batman, what happened?" Dick took a step towards the hunched figure, mildly confused when he didn't respond. "Batman?" it was only when he took another step that Nightwing noticed the blood on Batman's cape.

"Bruce?" His tone was apprehensive and worried, matched by a stance that allowed him to run at a moment's notice.

"Aliases only, Nightwing." Batman's voice came with a scolding tone as the man stood up and turned to his former protégé. "I thought I trained you out of that bad habit when you were ten."

"Goddamnit Bruce," Dick ignored Batman's words, "don't scare me like that! The way you were hunched over those things, the way you didn't respond… I thought you had been…"

"Infected?" Batman's scowl shifted into a small smirk, showing his amusement at Nightwing's worry.

"You called them zombies, what else was I supposed to think?" If Batman wasn't Batman, he wouldn't have noticed Nightwing's embarrassment. But he _was_ Batman, and he had noticed. His look spoke for that, causing Nightwing to further justify his reaction.

"Look, Wally's made me watch too many zombie movies, and you looked like you were in one of them. I can't help that I'm paranoid." Nightwing frowned before changing the conversation. "So what happened?"

That brought back Batman's scowl. "I had to kill them, but only after I determined they were already dead."

"Already dead?" Nightwing raised an eyebrow, causing his mask to contort.

"They seemed like some sort of failed experiment from The Court."

Dick immediately sobered. "You mean The Court of Owls?"

"Yes, The Court of Owls. We need to bring these corpses back to the Cave for me to analyze. I'd like you to stay in Gotham, just in case this does have anything to do with The Court."

Nightwing nodded, following Batman's lead as he picked up the corpses, bringing them to the batcave to burn.

* * *

"Find anything out yet?" Dick's voice echoed through the quiet cave, reaching the ears of Bruce, who, as usual, ignored it.

But Dick knew how to read his surrogate father. "I'll take that as a no, seeing as you haven't discovered enough info to share anything." Walking over to where Bruce sat hunched over a microscope, he flopped down in an office chair, spinning around lazily. "Any way I can help?" Dick always asked that question; even though he knew the answer would always be no — or more silence.

"Yes," Bruce's answer surprised the retired Boy Wonder. "I need you to ask Alfred to bring me a small sample of Poison Ivy's sex pollen."

There is no word to describe Dick's reaction other than flabbergasted.

"What?" He was practically sputtering, staring incredulously at the back of Bruce's head.

"I need to compare these samples to toxins and materials we have encountered in the past. I've already compared this with Joker Venom and the Scarecrow's fear gas, and there have been no similarities. The sex pollen is the next sample to test." Bruce explained his logic to the staggered young man beside him, never once looking up from the microscope.

"Okay…" Dick drew out the word, his confusion not mollified.

"Whatever infected those corpses is alive, so I doubt it will match, but I am covering all the bases." Bruce spoke again as Dick stood up to fetch Alfred, stopping him in his tracks.

"Wait, it's alive? Like… a germ?" The vigilante was officially interested.

"More like a parasite, making Poison Ivy a possible suspect as distributor." Bruce finally looked up from the microscope, making a few notes on the papers next to him.

Dick raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't poison Ivy deal with plants? Kingdom Plante, not Animalia."

"There are very few species of plants that function as a type of parasite, and this looks very similar to those. I want to see if I can find any other similarities with Poison Ivy's other materials." Bruce continued taking notes.

"Interesting." Dick was genuinely fascinated. "Let me grab you that sample."

Turning around, he left both his mentor and the batcave behind, walking up the stairs to find Alfred, avoiding looking at the mangled corpse lying on the medical table.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Long story short my mom blocked on my computer bc she doesn't like me writing ff but I still have my mobile so I want you all to literally suck my metaphorical dick bc I am uploading this via mobile and I s3g if this crashes one more time I will kill someone

deep breaths.

Read and enjoy. I love you all.

* * *

It was already half past ten in the morning, but Bruce hadn't left the cave. The more he studied the sample of "zombie", the more perplexed he became, and Batman didn't let mysteries go unsolved. Focusing all of his attention to the task at hand, Bruce had told Alfred to cancel all his meetings for the day, and Alfred did, regrettably informing various business men that "Bruce had taken sick and couldn't make it."

But with one problem solved, it wasn't long until another arose.

"Master Bruce, I thought I should alert you that the batsignal had been lit." Alfred approached Bruce, who still sat hunched over his microscope.

If Bruce was surprised, he hid it well, seeming to ignore the fact that the batsignal had been lit in broad daylight. Analyzing the situation, it didn't take long for the caped man to reply curtly.

"Send Nightwing."

When Dick had been Robin, he had never been sent out alone. Batman had kept him on a tight leash, and that had pissed him off. Nowadays, however, it wasn't uncommon for Bruce to send out Nightwing to do Batman's job.

But Dick didn't complain, (at least not this time) and it wasn't long before he landed on the roof of the GPCD headquarters, his costume looking quite garish in the mid-morning sun.

When he greeted Commissioner Gordon, he was met with a discontented frown. "Nightwing? Where's Batman?"

Nightwing smirked and answered, though it took quite a bit of self-control not to bite out a _'Gee, nice to see you too, old pal.'_

"He's busy following up on a lead. You'll have to make do with me."

Gordon hesitated, but he knew Dick well enough to know I could get things done.

"The GPCD got a call this morning about a shooting nearby the Gotham Center, however, despite the fresh blood on the ground, when we found the corpse, it was already decaying. It looked weeks old. We sent the blood sample and a flesh sample to our scientists, because our guess was that they came from different victims. But them we started getting the calls. Our phones started ringing off the hook, coming from people all over Southern Gotham, frantically reporting zombie sightings. We took the first few calls as a prank, but then the news stations started reporting on it. What I'm trying to say is that, unrealistic as it may seem, we have some sort of… "zombie" like creature infestation all over South Gotham, and the people are starting to panic."

All throughout Gordon's debriefing, Dick's eyes had been growing wider underneath his mask. "Shit. When did you start getting the calls?"

"About an hour ago. The news only started reporting about twenty minutes ago, which was when I lit up the batsignal." Gordon looked a little alarmed, but he was keeping his cool as much as a man in a zombie infestation can.

Nightwing bit his lip before piping up again. "What do you want me to do?"

Gordon shook his head. "God… I don't know. I was hoping Batman would be the one telling me what to do. How do we calm down the people? How do we protect the people?"

Gordon was interrupted by the beeping of Nightwing's .

Nightwing frowned. "I don't know, but I'll contact you as soon as I figure it out. I have to go."

And with less grace than usual, he leapt off the building. Truth be told, Dick was a bit shaken up.

Answering his , he heard Bruce's voice.

"Have you seen the news?"

Nightwing shook his head. "No, but Gordon told me about it."

"I need you to find Poison Ivy." Bruce was as brief as always getting straight to the point.

Despite what Batman had said earlier, Nighting was still surprised. "It's her?"

Dick heard the shuffling of papers before Bruce spoke again. "Unconfirmed, but it's the only lead we have."

"What about you?" Nightwing had reached his motorcycle, revving the engine as he started off towards Wayne manor.

But Batman's words stopped him in his tracks. "The cave has been compromised. The remaining corpse I was studying… exploded. There was enough pressure from the hot air caused by the heightened decomposition to allow the parasites burst outwards like spores. "

"What?" Dick's tone was sharp. "Are you infected?"

There was a pause before Bruce spoke again. "…Unconfirmed. I used my gas mask as soon as possible, but it is unknown if I breathed any of the spores in."

Dick clenched his jaw nervously. "What should I do?"

"Gather your team." Batman began to give orders. "Send out the emergency signal right now and meet at the cave once you've picked up Tim from school. Send out three teams. Team one should be crowd control. Team two should go out and burn all the "zombies" they can find, corpses too, and team three should look for Poison Ivy. Distribute gas masks and set up a safe zone. Keep calm. I will be working on a repellent for the parasites — a cure — here at the cave. At the moment, it is unknown if the spores are infectious. I will report to you when I learn more. You're in charge."

By now you could say Dick was officially worried. He'd seen a lot of zombie movies, and the one thing that they all shared was the fact that once civilians caught sight of the zombies, it all went to hell pretty quickly.

So Nightwing sent out the emergency signal to the rest of the team, taking a breath before calling Tim's cellphone.

"Tim, we've got a problem." He spoke as soon as Tim answered.

"I know, I saw the news." Tim's voice was level, but he was still a bit on edge.

But Nightwing snickered. "In school?"

"I was bored. What do you expect me to do in a computer class where I probably know more than the teacher?"

"Whatever." Dick didn't want to get off topic. "I need you to head to Mount Justice right now. Batman is having me deploy teams to handle this mess, so we're all convening at Mount Justice."

"Yeah, I saw the emergency signal. Why'd you call me?" Tim asked.

"I wanted to know if you needed a ride. I also have one of your costume spares if you need it. Bruce wanted me to pick you up."

"That would actually be useful. I have no mode of transportation now, but maybe we can stop at the cave on the way to grab the Robincycle."

Upon hearing that, Dick cringed. "Yeah, about that… The cave has been compromised, so nothing comes in or goes out. Batman's working to figure out what the cause is for all of this mess, and so he's stuck in the cave at the moment. That's why the team is handling this."

"What?" Tim's concern was evident. "What happened? Is Bruce in danger?"

Dick sighed. "We don't know. He was studying a corpse when a bunch of spores exploded out and contaminated the cave. Bruce has his gas mask but we can never be sure."

"Is there anything else we can do?" Tim sounded grim and determined.

"Prep the team. Bruce is doing what he can for now, so we'll have to handle all the rest." He paused. "Hey, I'm out back behind the school gym. Can you get into costume and meet me here?"

"Sure." Tim nodded. "Be there in five."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: yes hello please welcome this giant piece of shit who forgot to update! ugh I am v sorry I mean I had the chapter written I just forgot**

 **pls**

 **Forgive me**

 **(Also shout out to Wikipedia for making me look smart (ps I'm not))**

* * *

As Nightwing and Robin pulled into the Mount Justice garage, they were met by a worried looking M'gann.

"I saw the signal and came over as soon as possible. What's going on?"

Nightwing dismounted his bike. "I'll explain once we have everyone here. Do you know who else still needs to show up?"

M'gann furrowed her brow. "I think we're missing Jamie and La'gaan. They probably haven't been able to skip out of school yet."

"Understandable." Dick walked towards the main room of the cave where he heard the quiet chatter of curious heroes. "We'll wait for them a bit longer, but if they don't show up in about twenty minutes, we have to get this show on the road."

Entering the main room, he gained everyone's attention and was immediately bombarded with questions.

 _"What's going on?"_

 _"Why'd you call us?"_

 _"Do we have a mission?"_

 _"Where's the rest of the team?"_

It took a moment before the room was quiet enough for Nightwing to speak.

"Before I answer any of your questions, I need to ask: Have any of you seen the news today?"

This gained him some puzzled expressions and worried nods, but it did answer his question.

"Okay, since some of you haven't seen this yet, I'll let the TV explain." Turning to the big screen, he switched it on, flipping to a news channel.

 _"…Some sort of zombies seemed to have popped up in southern Gotham, raising questions of the public's safety and of what caused this."_

Letting the team absorb the information, he switched on his gauntlet computer and checked on a few things. Looking at his trackers, it seemed like the two missing members were currently en-route to the base, which was good. There were no further updates from Batman, and none from Gordon either.

Suddenly his comm beeped. Stepping out of the room, he answered. "Yeah?"

"Nightwing. Have you briefed the team yet?" Batman spoke through the link.

"Not yet. We're waiting for two members who are on their way. Why?"

"There have been new developments."

This caught Dick's attention. "Yes?"

"I was not infected." _Good_. "But apparently this parasite can take on animal hosts as well. The bats in the cave were infected and are now showing very violent tendencies. They have not escaped the cave and are currently attacking anything that moves. As of now I am hiding behind the giant penny, which is effective. They did initially attack me; however I was able to divert them with a flare. My observations entail that these parasites do not gain control of their host's vision, but are especially adept in sensing vibrations and heat. Keep that in mind if you come across any of them."

Nightwing nodded slowly, processing this information. "I copy. Anything else?"

"Yes. From what I have identified, this is most likely the work of Ivy. These parasites are in fact a type of fungus, quite similar to the Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis fungus. I was not able to finish my research before the bats damaged my sample, but what I was able to find out is that though this fungus is similar to the Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis fungus, it is also very different. It looks like it was tampered with and cross bred with different plants as well, which further points to Poison Ivy."

"Good to know." Nightwing had one last question. "What exactly is this fungus you keep mentioning?"

Bruce was silent for a second, and Dick assumed he was pulling up an article on the fungi. "The Ophiocordyceps unilateralis is an insect-pathogenising fungus found predominantly in tropical forest ecosystems. It is also known as the 'zombie fungus.' It targets chiefly ants, and the spores of the fungus attach to the ant, eventually breaking through the exoskeleton using mechanical pressure and enzymes. Yeast stages of the fungus spread in the ant's body and presumably produce compounds that affect the ant's hemocoel, utilizing the evolutionary trait of an extended phenotype to manipulate the behavioral patterns exhibited by the ant. "

"Okay, so this fungus makes ants into zombies." Dick was pretty sure he had heard of this once before.

"Essentially. The fungus then kills the ant, and continues to grow as its hyphae invade more soft tissues and structurally fortify the ant's exoskeleton. More mycelia then sprout out of the ant, and securely anchor it to the plant substrate while secreting antimicrobials to ward off competition. When the fungus is ready to reproduce, its fruiting bodies grow from the ant's head and rupture, releasing the spores."

"So do you think our zombies will eventually just die off? Do you think the fungus will kill them?"

"I am not sure. If Ivy really did plan this, then I doubt she would leave such an obvious mistake. My hypothesis is that the spores are only released when the fungi's connection to the nervous system is severed. Once it realizes its host in useless, it releases spores in order to continue its survival. That would explain why the corpse I was studying released spores, whereas none of the rest of these 'zombies' have."

"That is really good to know. So it sounds like the best way of dealing with these things is to both immobilize them and segregate them, or to burn them." Nightwing was interrupted when he saw La'gaan enter the room, closely followed by and Jamie. "I have to go, but keep me updated if you figure out anything else. Stay safe."

And with that, he hung up. With a nod of greeting to the arriving members of his team, he entered the main room and regained everyone's attention.

"So, I am sure most of you already know what is going on."

"You mean the whole zombie apocalypse thing?" Jamie interjected.

"Yeah, pretty much. The news is doing a pretty good job of reporting what's happening, but Batman and I have been able to retain some more information. Long story short, he and I came across a small group of these buggers last night. We ending up killing them and taking them back to the cave to study, but only after we realized they were already dead. These things aren't a result of mind control or anything, they're genuine zombies.

"From what Batman has been able to figure out, these things are the product of a highly mutated form of the Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, also known as the Zombie fungus. I'll spare you the details on that; they don't really matter. Basically, the virus spreads via spores that are released by the corpses, and I'm assuming open wounds. It seems like these things are attracted to heat and vibrations, meaning that as long as you stay far enough away, you should be good. Stealth and distraction are key." Before he could go on, Nightwing was interrupted by Artemis.

"So what are we supposed to do?"

Nightwing nodded at her. "Good question. I will be setting up three teams. Team one is crowd control. As you've seen on the news, a lot of people are panicking, so team one will go out and calm the public, while also setting up a fortified safe zone and handing out gas masks. This team will consist of Miss Martian, Beast Boy, Lagoon Boy, Batgirl, Guardian, and Bumblebee, with Aqualad as team leader.

"Team two will go and burn all the zombies they can find, corpses too. I forgot to mention, but the virus is also infectious to animals, so you might end up killing Fido and Spot." Dick grimaced. Continuing on, he segregated the second group. "Team two will consist of Impulse, Kid Flash, Superboy, Blue Beetle, and Artemis, with Robin as team leader."

As the aforementioned people stepped off into their own group, a voice piped up.

"What about team three?" Tim stood with his team, attentive to detail as always.

"I'm team three, and I'll be searching for Poison Ivy." This earned some surprised and quizzical stares, but Dick continued before any questions could arise. "Batman has a hunch that Ivy will be at the bottom of all this, and so I will be having a chat with her. Luckily enough, she is in Arkham at the moment, so after I interrogate her, I will be joining team two."

With that question answered, another arose, this time from Aqualad. "May I ask why Batman isn't the one delivering this message? He is normally the one to assign us big missions."

This caused Nightwing to grimace again. "The cave was compromised while Batman was conducting some experiments with our zombie specimen, so he put the cave in lockdown. He is unharmed and will be continuing his studies if at all possible, but nothing will be entering or leaving the cave until everything is guaranteed sterilized."

Aqualad nodded, his question satisfyingly answered. Surveying the room, Nightwing placed a hand on his hip. "Any other questions?"

Bart's hand shot up. "Yeah… you mentioned that you have to kill these guys to take them down, but I don't have any lethal weapons."

"That is actually a good point." Turning to the full team, Nightwing addressed them all. "Impulse is right; we do have to kill these things to take them down. To be more precise, we have to destroy the brain or sever its connection to the nervous system and burn them. However, I know a lot of you do not have lethal weapons.

"Now, our arsenal of deadly weapons isn't that large, but I'm sure we'll have enough to equip you all. Before any of you head out, make sure to grab one." When the nods of acknowledgement died off, Dick spoke again. "Anything else?"

Met with silence, Dick nodded before giving the order. "Okay then. Head out."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: wtf I m literally a piece of trash I missed my upload date agAIN? My god I apologize I don't even have an excuse I just forgot. So yeah I am now officially changing the "upload date" to a vague once a week. I can do that.**

 **Anyways, enjoy! This be hella long.**

* * *

After watching team one and team two head out, Nightwing headed towards Arkham. As far as the Arkham guards were concerned, Ivy was still being detained, but Nightwing knew the Arkham reports weren't always accurate. He just hoped Ivy hadn't escaped overnight. That would only make his job harder. When he was about halfway there, he felt a slight tickle in the back of his mind, something he was able to identify as telepathic probing.

 _M'gann?_ Dick projected the thought.

It's me. He felt the Martian respond with a nod. _Sorry to intrude; I know you don't like that. I have a couple questions though._

Though he has been doing it for years, it still felt a bit odd for Nightwing to speak mentally without voicing his thoughts. _What do you need?_ Because of his difficulty, he often mouthed the words he thought, which probably didn't make him look very sane. But then again, that doesn't really matter when you're speeding down the road at 90 miles per hour.

 _Is there anything else we need to know about this parasite? Being the medic of the team, I thought it would be good for me to know in case something happens. I might be able to help figure something out too._ M'gann's voice was level.

 _There isn't much else besides what I told you. Batman explained a lot of the scientific matters behind it, but I don't really remember the details, but I'm sure you could easily figure that out. Pull up a Wikipedia page on your phone or something. That's really the best I can get you for the scientific matters. Batman did, however, have a hypothesis. He thinks that basically, that the spores are only released when the fungi's connection to the nervous system is severed. When the fungi realizes its host in useless, it releases spores in order to spread and survive._

 _Great,_ Dick could feel M'gann's nod. _That's really helpful. One last question: how do you two already know so much about a problem that started less than twelve hours ago?_

Nightwing chuckled harshly at that. _We don't, really. These are all just educated guesses. If we're right, then we're lucky. Batman and I are kind of the first-responders when things like this happen, so it's pretty much our job to bullshit our way through them. We do our best to understand what's going on, be we never really know for sure. Making assumptions is part of the job._

 _Oh, okay._ M'gann sounded a bit unsure. _Well, let me know if you figure anything else out._

 _I will._

And with that, Nightwing felt M'gann leave his mind, with perfect timing too. He was just pulling up to the Arkham gates. Pulling up the guard's window, he took off his helmet.

"I need to interrogate Poison Ivy. May I enter?" Dick couldn't help but smirk at the guard's frightened face; he must be a rookie. Most of the Arkham guards were used to the Bat family paying some of the inmates a visit.

Driving through the now opened gates, he made it inside and repeated his request, and soon enough he was outside Poison Ivy's cell.

"Ivy." Nightwing addressed the redhead who sat at her small desk, lovingly stroking the leaves of a small potted plant.

She responded with a disconcerted hum, which Nightwing didn't necessarily find surprising. She didn't always feel inclined to talk to him.

"I think you know why I'm here." Dick continued. "There has recently been an infestation of a certain parasite, one that I think you might be familiar with. The Ophiocordyceps unilateralis?" Dick really hoped he pronounced that right — mispronunciation didn't really help him seem intimidating. "Batman and I have found a mutated version of that parasite infecting some small parts of Gotham, and all signs are pointing back to you. You have one of two choices. Either prove that this wasn't you and help us figure out how to stop it, or admit that it was you and help us stop it. You're going to be helping us either way, so you the quicker you tell me what you know, the sooner I leave you alone."

"Sorry birdie, but I don't know nothing about that Ophio-whatchamacallit." Ivy turned around in her chair, and Dick would be lying if he said he wasn't surprised to be met with a very un-Pamela-Ivell-like face.

"Harley?" Nightwing squinted at the pale-skinned woman in front of him Damn, the red hair is weird. "Where's Poison Ivy?" His befuddlement was quickly replaced with a stern, no-nonsense demeanor.

"I dunno." Harley shrugged, tugging off the red wig. "Gee, that wig was gettin' itchy, couldn't you have come any sooner?"

Dick fought back the urge to sigh. Harley Quinn was quite possibly one of the hardest people to interrogate — she always got off track and spoke nonsense.

"Why are you in Ivy's cell?" Nightwing decided to start with the basics.

"I dunno." Harley shrugged again. "Pammy just told me that she needed to get outta here without causing a fuss, so she said that if I stayed in her cell, I could dress up like her. She also said I could have this flower!" Turning back to the plant she had been stroking, Harley ripped the red bloom off of the thorny stem, sticking it in her blonde hair. "Doesn't it make me look pretty?"

"…Sure." Dick tried to steer the conversation back to the task at hand. "Do you know where she went? Do you know what she was planning to do?"

"Nope and a nope!" Harley sang, fiddling with the flower in her hair.

"Okay," Nightwing tried not to get frustrated. "Is there anything useful you can tell me about Ivy?"

"Her favorite ice cream flavor is Strawberry! We always get Neapolitan though, when we have our gal nights, because I like the chocolate and vanilla."

Dick finally gave in to his urge to sigh. Taking a deep breath, he asked Harley his final question. "Okay, so if you're in Ivy's cell, why haven't you been reported as missing from your cell?"

Harley grinned. "I dunno!" She was telling the truth, but she couldn't help but smile knowing that her ignorance was pissing off the previous Boy Wonder. "Pam just said she'd take care of it. She's such a good gal-pal."

Dick resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Okay then. Thank you for the information."

"You aren't going to make me go back to my cell, are ya?" Harley stopped Nightwing's retreat. "I don't wanna go back, this cell smells like Pammy and it's really nice. I like it." She pouted.

"You don't have to go back." Dick sighed again.

"Yay!" Harley cheered. "Thanks, bird-brain!"

Nightwing shook his head. He hated it when Harley called him that, but it was kind of humorous. Making his way back to the exit, he made sure to stop by Harley's cell to see what Poison Ivy had rigged up. Reaching the presumably empty cell, Dick couldn't help but grimace when he noticed a red and black lump curled up on the bed. Unlocking the cell, he stepped in to inspect the form. Taking its pulse, Nightwing sadly wasn't surprised to find it non-existent. _She killed a guard and dressed the corpse up like Harley._ _Sometimes I forget how sick these people are._ Rolling the corpse over, Dick closed the dead brown eyes of Poison Ivy's victim.

As he made his way back to the front entrance, Dick stopped at the head guard's desk.

"Poison Ivy escaped, Harley Quinn is in her cell, and there is a corpse dressed up as Harley in her cell. I'll let you deal with Harley, but I have to go find Ivy now." Ignoring the guard's surprised and panicked look, Nightwing stalked out to his motorcycle and made his way out of the Arkham courtyard. Activating his comm . link, Dick spoke, his voice laced with irritation.

"Ivy escaped, but we don't have any leads to where she might be. We'll have to deal with her later. Team two, where are you at? I should be at your position in about twenty to thirty minutes, depending on where you are."

"Wall damn," It was Wally who responded first. "That sucks. We're in Grant Park. We found a couple of zombies shambling around, and we're pretty sure there are some infected ducks or something, which makes this a hell of a lot harder."

"Copy." Dick smiled at Wally's casual way of communicating. The speedster didn't seem to get into "mission mode" very often, but he was still highly effective. "My ETA is fifteen minutes. Where about in the park are you?"

"The southwest corner." It was Jamie who responded this time, his beetle most likely telling him their exact location.

"Be there soon. Nightwing out."

* * *

By the time Nightwing had caught up with team two, he was pulled away from the mission at hand when he received a call from team one.

"Nightwing?" Aqualad's voice crackled to life over the comm . link.

"I'm here. What's going on?" Nightwing swung away from his team and sat down on a bench — a highly unprofessional move, but it really didn't matter at the moment. The rest of team two was literally on a goose hunt. Nightwing wasn't needed at the moment.

"I had team one split up and begin herding together the people of North Gotham and distribute gas masks. Because the infection is only in South Gotham at the moment, we're going to begin evacuating the civilians up here before moving south."

"Logical." Nightwing approved of Kaulder's decision.

"Yes, however, we'd like to find a place for these people to stay without just abandoning them outside of Gotham. I understand that you have connections, so I was curious as to see if you could arrange some sort of refugee camp?" Also logical. There was a reason Kaulder was the official leader of the team.

"Yeah, I'll get right on that. Go ahead and lead them across New Trigate Bridge and I'll make sure someone's there to take them off your hands." By the way they were speaking, it sounded as if they were talking about passing a couple kids off to a babysitter, not all of North Gotham to someone yet to be found.

But so is the heroing business; everything except the most dire of situations was handled with a nonchalant manner.

Disconnecting from Kaulder, Dick paged Bruce. "Hey, Bruce, Kaulder is heading towards New Trigate Bridge with the majority of North Gotham, can you make some calls and set up temporary refugee housing?"

Dick could hear Bruce sigh over the comm. "On such short notice? Maybe, but it will be hard." Bruce always hated it when Dick asked him to pull strings, even if it was for a good cause.

"Great, thanks Bruce."

"Aliases please."

Dick — pardon — Nightwing, just laughed and cut the call. Bruce had time to be grumpy later.

Connecting with Aqualad again, Nightwing relayed his message. "Batman's setting something up."

And with that, Dick rejoined team two on their goose hunt.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: HOLY HELL GUYS LGBTQ+ MARRIAGE IS NOW LEGAL IN ALL 50 STATES FUCK YES #LOVEWINS**

 **But yes, on that note, here's a gentle reminder that this war isn't over, there are still a lot more battles to fight. Stay strong and stay proud, my little ones.**

* * *

Then everything went to hell. There really wasn't any other way to explain it besides that. Everything went to hell, shit hit the fan, it blew up in their fucking faces.

It was ironic at first, that the richer part of Gotham was the bit to be infected, that Crime Ally and the slums had for once gotten a free pass. But the Gotham elites found it far from funny. As soon as their ears caught the sound of danger, they all packed their bags and hopped into their refurbished mustangs and limos and drove for any exit they could find. Everyone knew Gotham was hell, but now even the demons were turning tail and running for their lives.

You couldn't blame them, really. People could handle a psychotic clown or a masked scarecrow, but now that the threat was something that couldn't be seen, something whose face couldn't be plastered across billboards as some sort of strange attraction, everyone wanted out.

But that was the problem. From what Bruce had measured, it took bats about a half an hour to turn. But those were small animals, not fat-bellied humans who didn't exercise enough to barely get their hearts beating, let alone circulate a microscopic spore throughout their bodies within such a short time. There was no knowing how quickly a human would turn if exposed to the spores, and if they would show any signs of it before hand.

With that being said, I guess it shouldn't have been a surprise when a fat old man turned, right in the midst of the backed up traffic on Vincefinkel Bridge.

But one was all it took, because apparently these things were stronger and a lot faster than they looked. The once lethargic gentleman was now raging through the frozen cars, ripping open limo doors and eliciting screams of both terror and pain from the fur clothed elites within.

But one more mystery down, apparently the parasite spread fucking fast when the host was bitten, because soon enough, the entire bridge was swarming with the undead.

And it only took one of them to cross the bridge to bring the rest of the world down too.

It was almost as if these monsters knew that, because the rest of the mob turned back to feast on the panicking city behind them.

I guess demons like staying in Hell.

* * *

(The end of the world happens in a similar fashion as to falling in love: slowly and then all at once, if I were to quote my friend John Green. You think you see it coming, but then you realize, _no. You really didn't._ )

When the teen heroes realized how really, truly, fucked they were, they did something very un-hero-like. They ran.

"I know it doesn't seem very heroic, but we have to retreat!" Nightwing was shouting over his comm . link, trying to drown out the screams that seemed to be coming from every direction. "There's nothing we can do for these people, we have to regroup. Meet back up at Mount Justice, and for the love of god, _keep your masks on._ " Nightwing was glad he had insisted that everyone wear their gas masks before they set out, because with everything going to shit like this, there was no knowing who might have breathed in a spore or two.

On the way back to Mount Justice, Dick realized he should stop comparing this to all of the zombie movies he and Wally had watched together.

In those movies, the virus was never so fucking _infectious_. Less than a day after the first zombie showed up and now the whole of Gotham was doomed.

And with that thought, he realized something. Calling Wayne Manor, Dick breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Alfred's voice answer. "Is there a problem, master Nightwing?"

 _Yeah, you could say that_. "Alfred, good, thank god. Look, I'm sure you've seen it on the news, but we're having a full blown zombie apocalypse. I also know you can take of yourself, but I just want to make sure you get yourself someplace safe. Fly back to England or something. I know it seems drastic, but the infection has already spread out of Gotham, and really, the only place you're going to be safe is another continent. You still have family in England, right?"

"I do have family back in England, however, I am not leaving. I came to America to serve Master Bruce, and if the threat of an apocalypse scared me, I would have quit long ago. I still have a position to fill in this household."

Dick knew Alfred was right — well, maybe he wasn't _right_ , but he sure as hell was stubborn, and it was pretty clear he wasn't going back home. Once Alfred set his mind to something, he didn't back down. Maybe that was where Bruce got it.

"Fine." Dick shook his head. "Then set up some sort of barricade. Actually — better yet, throw on a gasmask and go join Batman in the Batcave. He's got it in lockdown to keep the infection from spreading, but that's kind of fruitless right now. I'll tell him to let you in. But then you stay there, in lockdown mode. You can't get yourself hurt, okay?"

Even though Alfred had spent the past decade taking care of Dick, Dick couldn't help but feel as if he had to take care of the old butler.

With that handled, Nightwing spend the rest of his ride toward Mount Justice trying to figure out how in the world the Justice League was going to fix this.


	6. I am so so sorry guys

Hey guys, bad news. My parents rooted through my computer and found the fanfiction that I write, along with a lot of other things they hate (the read my chats and found out I'm pansexual.) so I have had all of my electronics taken away for god knows how long. It could be weeks, months, or even years. Things are not going well. So under these circumstances, I have no idea when or if I will be able to update my stories. I am so sorry guys. So so sorry. This is really hard for me too. So this is an official hiatus announcement. I have no idea how long. Please forgive me guys.

I promise I will continue these stories though, even if it takes me years to access fanfiction again.

I am really sorry. Please pray for me guys, I live in a really strict, homophobic household and I fear for my freedom. There is a high chance I may not get my computer back until I move out of the house. Keep me on your mind guys. I am so sorry.


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